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Just a schoolboy fantasy

Today Christine is said to be estranged from her children from two marriages and to be reclusive and overweight. If true it's sad because if I could ever have been said to have had a crush on any young woman who I didn't actually know, it was on her.

That is, unless I count jealousy of that old bloke, film director Roger Vadim for his various young wives, including Brigitte Bardot, Jane Fonda and that Swedish bird in between. Of course that was not realistic. They were all a little too old for me at the time.

But Christine was close to my own age. And the naughtiest - perhaps. Mandy Rice-Davies was even closer in age.

My fantasies were of course just that. They would have eaten me alive.

I wished!

The chair has been made famous by these photographs. It now has pride of place in a contemporary exhibit at London's Victoria and Albert Museum.

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Travel

Japan

In the second week of May 2017 our small group of habitual fellow travellers Craig and Sonia; Wendy and I; took a package introductory tour: Discover Japan 2017 visiting: Narita; Tokyo; Yokohama; Atami; Toyohashi; Kyoto; and Osaka.

Fiction, Recollections & News

The Craft

A Cloud prequel

Chapter 1 - Caught short

Christmas 2069 approaches and in the midst of the greatest retail spending frenzy for decades Bianca has been trying on clothes.. They're at Bergeroff Goodman, an up-market store. Bianca has been brought here by Margery who frequents such expensive places. Unlike many other retail establishments in the world at this time of year, the store is not over-packed with shoppers.

Elsewhere many customers will expend their entire available credit and have even accumulated credit from earlier in the year to allow for this annual celebratory splurge. Much of it will be expended on personal services, personal wellbeing, exercise, entertainment and of course religious practice and many will exchange gifts of credit towards these services with friends and loved ones. But this store is very up-market and discrete.

This Monday lunchtime Margery is encouraging Bianca to buy a top quality black wool and mohair suit with a knee length skirt, similar to the one Margery is wearing. Bianca had been resisting and equivocating when the call of nature gratuitously cut short their struggle. The older woman had assumed Bianca's resistance was for financial reasons, insisting that a good suit is not an extravagance but an investment in Bianca's future.

Opinions and Philosophy

Syria - again

A fortnight ago I was moved to suggest that it was possible that the alleged gas attack in Syria might not be the work of the Syrian Army. I withdrew the posting when more convincing evidence of Army involvement became available.

Because of our visit to Syria took place just before the most recent troubles began, I have been, perhaps, more interested than most. I wanted to know why Syria is automatically assumed to be guilty when there are some very nasty groups on the other side?

We are fed so much doctored information, spin, that it is hard to get the facts even when we are directly involved.

So to claim that I know what is actually going on in Syria is fanciful. Assad vehemently denies responsibility; the Russians are doubtful; and the inspectors have not yet reported. But the certainty, and aggressive language, of the Western leaders accusing Syria of this latest incident seem extraordinary - do they know something that they are not revealing publicly?

As I have explained elsewhere I have fond memories of Damascus and of Syria in general. Damascus was the most pleasant and interesting of the cities we stayed in; lacking the extremes of poverty and wealth we saw in Cairo (and in Egypt in general) or the more western normality of Amman in Jordan.